and other stuff, too.

February 26, 2019

A Star is Born

This is not my typical movie so color me surprised when the opportunity arose to give it a watch. And it was pretty good so consider me a possible convert.

Apparently, this movie has been remade about once a generation and the story goes the same. Troubled musician stumbles upon a young woman with immense talent. He gives her the shot she so deserves to make her fame. But as she rises, his vices begin to control him and the relationship strains.

The whole point of this movie is the music so let’s talk about that first. Bradley Cooper does…fine. It’s not bad let’s put it that way. He’s definitely giving off a Dan Auerbach/Black Keys vibe. Now I love The Black Keys but I have a hard time believing he is an instantly recognizable celebrity playing that brand of music. Lady Gaga is, of course, amazing at singing so it’s no surprise that she nails it. And the song Shallow is pretty great, but I can’t see that about the rest of the music which already seems to have disappeared from my head.

The romance is good to watch although Cooper is extremely creepy at the beginning. Maybe it’d be flirting if you were in the moment but from an outside perspective I just couldn’t stop thinking about how I would never do that on a first date. Super aggressive moves. But their love is fun to watch, Cooper is nothing if not an amazing actor, and Gaga gives an impressive performance for a non-actor. I felt that the pacing was very good until this weird section where Dave Chappelle shows up. I still can’t figure out why when it would have served the story that much better if it was Sam Eliot’s character (who was also amazing in his 5 minute role).

Ultimately, this film gets a lot of credit for still having balls. I was not expecting that ending and it hits you like a sucker punch. Props props props. But the best part of the entire film, hands down, is the drag queens at the beginning. Let’s see a movie about them.